The thorn had fallen: after seventeen years of exclusion from power, amidst the alternatives of passionate struggles and of midly indolent discouragements, Fox seized the rudder in an hour of dolorous and patriotic agony. His admiration for the Emperor Napoleon, and the sympathy which he had constantly shown for France, inclined him naturally towards peace. He immediately made overtures; his envoys were moderate in their demands as in their tendencies. A happy chance furnished the minister with the opportunity of rendering a signal service to the emperor. An adventurer had offered to assassinate the enemy of England. Mr. Fox at once notified Talleyrand. However they might differ in their methods, the emperor and his minister were equal adepts at flattery. "Thank Mr. Fox," replied Napoleon, "and say to him, whether the policy of his sovereign causes us to continue much longer at war, or whether as speedy an end as the two nations can desire, is put to a quarrel useless for humanity, I rejoice at the new character which, from this proceeding, the war has already taken, and which is an omen of what may be expected from a cabinet, of the principles of which I am delighted to judge from those of Mr. Fox, who is one of the men most fitted to feel, in everything, what is excellent, what is truly great." The conditions of peace proposed by England were moderate; for the first time, those of France indicated seriously the desire for peace. Only one stumbling-block hindered the success of the negotiations: England would not treat without Russia. Napoleon refused absolutely to admit Russia among the number of the contracting powers. "The obstacle is for us, insurmountable," wrote Fox to Talleyrand; "if the emperor could see, with the same eye that I behold it, the true glory which he would have a right to acquire, by a just and moderate peace, what happiness would not result from it for France and for all Europe!" {417}